Long covid with Melissa Heightman and Jenny Mollica

It has been estimated that 10% of people who get covid-19 are still experiencing symptoms over 10 weeks later, and the common symptoms of long covid include fatigue, breathlessness, chest pain and ‘brain fog’. In this week’s episode, we discuss the challenges of assessing long covid symptoms, especially chest pain, in primary care. As we still don’t know enough about the trajectory of the disease, how can we balance the assumption that a patient’s symptom is caused by long covid, as is likely to be the case the majority of the time, with the potential risk of missing a critical diagnosis, such as lung cancer? We talk about the importance of acknowledging and listening to our patients’ worries about long-term symptoms, even in the face of uncertainty, when reassurance is difficult to give. We also learn about the English National Opera’s new breathing and wellbeing programme, ENO Breathe, aimed at people recovering from covid-19. Our guests: Melissa Hightman is a respiratory consultant at UCLH, and the clinical lead for the trust’s COVID follow-up service.

Jenny Mollica is the director of ENO Baylis: the English National Opera’s learning and participation programme, which now includes ENO Breathe.